Untuned Piano
by dearlordwhathaveieverdone
Summary: Scorpius Malfoy is a good student, clean, ordinary. But his mothers death keeps him from becoming something. And Albus Potter just so happens to be everything that Scorpius isn't. But how does a bet have anything to do with this?


Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

-John F. Kennedy

Rose Weasley always knew that she would get Head Girl. With her brilliance how could she not?

Even though she had been expecting it, Rose had still been extremely delighted when a tawny owl had planted himself on the Weasley's kitchen table. Rose had excitingly ripped open the unusually large package and soon a badge fell out that was not her regular prefect badge. What is was made Rose screech excitingly and opened the rest of the letter. It had said in large official looking letter from Headmistress McGonagall that Rose would be this year's Head Girl.

Her parents were both extremely pleased, and Rose's grandmother had practically smothered her when she found out. Grandma Weasley had even said it called for a family reunion, so all of her many uncles, aunts and cousins showed up. But that had been some time ago, and thankfully, over and done with. Now she was finally making it perfectly official.

Now the Gryffindor was finally walking to the headmistress' office, a bounce in her step and a grin on her face, even when looking a bit mad, Rose still held her head high. And nothing, nothing, could possibly ruin her current euphoria. Even when Rose had smiled at the Bloody Baron.

But her smile did fade when the newly rebuilt gargoyle said that she looked like a hobgoblin that smoked too much gillyweed. No matter if it was true or not, Rose had been extremely offended, and said something's that should not be repeated in polite company. But when Rose reminded herself why she was here in the first place she calmed a bit and told the gargoyle the password. It took a moment longer than Rose would have liked for the gargoyle to start moving to allow her entrance, but the gargoyle did start, and once he was completely still did Rose rush up the circular stairs, worried that he would change his mind about letting her in.

Apparently Rose was more out of shape then she would have liked to admit because when she did reach the Headmaster's office Rose was out of breath. But after Rose caught her breath, her freckled hand landed a knock on the large oak door. The sound of it spread over her like a medication, calming Rose's suddenly jumpy nerves. Then a commanding voice told her to, "Enter."

So gladly Rose did, and with a loud screech, Rose finally got her first peek of the Headmistress' office. She expected the smoke and whistles, but was taken aback as the first thing she did see, was none other than Scorpius Malfoy

It wasn't as though the two were on clashing terms, but Rose had never really talked to the painfully shy Ravenclaw. Rose remembered how so many people were shocked when the sorting hat had yelled 'Ravenclaw' to the near silent room on the first day of school, including Rose herself, as earlier that day her dad had told her to stay away from the blonde, making her believe that the youngest Malfoy would be just as bad as his father, and automatically putting him in Slytherin. But she was rather disappointed as with him being in Ravenclaw, the home of the clever, the youngest Malfoy was rather intelligent. Actually since Rose didn't think she needed to work very hard to be the best in her year, she was rather taken aback when Professor Flitwick had taken her aside to tell Rose that he was rather disappointed that Scorpius Malfoy was betting her on all of the current tests.

All it did was make Rose both insanely disappointed and promised herself that she would fulfill her father's wish for her to beat Scorpius Malfoy at every test. As it turned out that was incredibly hard.

It didn't even seem as though he tried! Rose had watched him during every Gryffindor-Ravenclaw classes and all he did was write down the same exact notes that she did! Merlin, it was so annoying. But after the first year Rose decided that she should just do her best and not care that the insufferable little ferret, was beating her at every test.

"Now, Ms. Weasley, if you would please sit down," The former Transfiguration teacher told her, gesturing to the open seat in front of her desk. Rose sat down quickly, but not before she glanced at the shorter blonde. The only part of the boy that was moving was the twittering of his pale fingers in what seemed a rather impatient manner.

"Ms. Weasley, Mr. Malfoy, you are both aware that you are now the head girl and boy, correct?" They both nodded, though Rose's was a little more vigorous than Scorpius'. "You will both be sharing the Head Tower with each other. You both will be expected to schedule the Prefects route that evenly goes through the school, understood?" Two more nods. "If these small things affect your studies, I won't hesitate to demote you and continue your Hogwarts education as a prefect. Now go and sleep its past curfew already." She looked at them both from behind her glasses.

As the two seventh years got up to leave, McGonagall said one last thing, "You two can choose what you want as the password. Expect to have it change every fortnight. You are dismissed." With that the teenagers left her office.

They walked in absolute silence, except for that clacking of their shoes on the stone corridor. The silence was starting to get to Rose, but didn't seem to affect the grey eyed boy at all. She thought to herself that maybe he was used to it. The epiphany made her stop and stare at the back of the retreating blonde.

Soon enough however Rose quickly righted herself and caught up to the shorter blonde who had gone blissfully unaware that she had even stopped.

As they got closer and closer to their new home for the year Rose tried to strike up a conversation, "So what do you want to have the password be? I think we should have one of us decide it this time, and then the other could decide next time. Is that alright? Well, do you mind if I decide first? It doesn't really matter to me though." Rose finished, her one sided conversation.

If it hadn't been as silent as it was Rose would have probably missed his answer. "You can d-decide first, I-if you want." Scorpius stuttered, hiding his face with his fringe.

"Alright..." Rose said gently, putting a finger to her chin as she thought of what was going to be their first password. "Well, how about... alliances?" She said, not expecting when Scorpius' head shot up to look at her with disbelief clear on his face. "I think it fits, taking into consideration of our family's history." The disbelieving look was still on his face. "Look, Malfoy… Scorpius." A deep sigh escaped Rose as she pinched the bridge of her nose, trying (and failing) to stop the upcoming headache from happening. Looking at him straight in the eyes Rose continued, "I want us to be friends. Really I do."

They stared there for a while, eyes still locked in an intense battle.

Finally a small smile formed on the short boy's face, and if Rose hadn't been looking at it she would probably have missed it. Because it was gone as quickly as it came. Rose would still give him an A for effort.

When they got to the portrait of two old witches guarded the entrance to the Head boy and girls' common room, one in purple and one in pink. They looked as exactly the opposite, the pink short and skinny and the purple tall and round. Both of their white hair was pulled into a bun on the opposite side of their heads. The one in the purple gave them a one over before saying, "You two are this year's Heads, correct? Well, what do you want the password to be?" Once one of them stopped talking the other picked up immediately, as though they had already had the conversation previously prepared for the duo.

"The most popular ones are party, books, and lover." The pink one said, sipping her tea.

"That's not true, Debby! The most popular ones are organism, humping and sex!" A gasp escaped Rose and she covered her hand over her mouth. But a glance at Scorpius made her reaction seem tiny. Scorpius' entire face was covered in a blood red blush, which made his hair look even more blonde.

"We want alliances as the password! Not party, or lover or sex!" Rose snapped, making the arguing woman humph, but they did open the door anyway, muttering about rude children and annoying red heads.

Rose's blue eyes were wide as she saw were her new room would be. The 'common room' was just slightly smaller than the Gryffindor one, with the fireplace on the East wall, soft chairs and couches, some in red and some in blue. There are two large desks on either wall on the opposite side, in-between them was a large bookcase that made Rose's inner bookworm itch with excitement. It also had some portraits most full curious men and women. Though some were asleep, there were also some empty ones that were not altogether unusual.

Rose immediately went to the staircase that went to the bathroom, which had light yellow tiles. She went to the first bedroom, which was probably Scorpius' with the blue and silver decorating. She could only hope that her room was just as big.

She went to her own room that only had different colors. All her stuff had been moved and unpacked while she had been talking with McGonagall, which included her very own towels in her own bathroom. Flopping happily on her bed, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming of towels and toiletries.

* * *

Scorpius couldn't believe how many books there was. It was like he was in a trance as he reached for the first book. He had already read it before but he didn't care as he plopped down at his new desk, but had to grope his robes pockets for his reading glasses.

That was something that most people didn't know about Scorpius, or even bother to remember, is that he had reading glasses. It wasn't that big of a deal as his mother made it. Well, had. His mother had died at the beginning of his first year. Ironically enough someone had started a rumor that he had gotten the dark mark in those short weeks that he was away.

Scorpius' father had gone under a serious depression after his mother died. Draco had begun drinking heavily, making the ten year old boy drag him away from the bar. One time Scorpius had gotten so fed up with it, he had screamed and shouted at his father until his throat was dry. Draco had just looked at him for a long while, then moved over and hugged his son while tears ran down his face.

It had been the first time Scorpius had ever seen his father show any type of emotion. Let alone break down and sob. In a way it had scared Scorpius to see his father so... broken.

But no matter, Scorpius had tried his best to make his father happy. Got all O's in every class he took, got perfect scores on all his tests, did everything in his power to make sure he was the perfect student at Hogwarts. He hasn't never even lost house points!

Some people thought of him as too studious. This made making friends harder than ever. The few friend he had made before his mum died, well, they didn't know exactly what to say when they learned (or figured out) what had happened, so their friendship quickly died out. So most of the Ravenclaw's had pretty much stayed clear of him that year. Some of the Slytherin purebloods did too. Well some.

That didn't really help with the bullying, though. Most people had stopped after the first few years, (Scorpius had a hunch it was because they didn't think he was a little Death Eater, as so many did in the beginning) but a few people still pursued over the years, like Mathias Flint, a Slytherin beater, or Greg Heftly, a chaser for the Gryffindor's. They had been one of the few that had really made Scorpius' life a living hell.

Scorpius still couldn't figure out why though. He didn't know much about Heftly, but everything in Flint's life should point to a good life and career, with being his parent's heir. Who owed a million galleon corporations, sending magical supplies all across the world. Scorpius' had even seen his family at one of those big fancy parties that his grandparents liked to host so much.

And Scorpius was sure that if he could live with his mother dying, father becoming a drunkard, all at the young and sensitive age of ten, he could live with just about anything.

One thing that did come as a shock to Scorpius was Rose Weasley sudden offer of friendship. He didn't exactly have a terrible relationship with her and her family like his father did, but he was never on speaking terms with the Weasley Clan. And besides the occasion partnering in potions, Scorpius wouldn't have talked to any Potters either.

Now that was the question wasn't it?

Albus Potter was everything that Scorpius was not.

He was good looking, that was for sure. With those green eyes that could make anyone swoon. The broad tan shoulders from playing many hours of playing the Slytherin Keeper in Quidditch, and the brain the size of a peanut.

Scorpius wasn't trying to be insulting. Oh no, quite the contrary! He just thought the boy was rather... slow. Well to be honest with you, Albus Potter was as thick as butter after a beating. Scorpius was sure that Albus tried, but when Scorpius had to work with him during sixth year, he was in for a shock at exactly how… illogical the boy was.

Albus had tried, that much Scorpius could give him that. Albus had almost sliced his own fingers off, and then almost sliced Scorpius' off, but when the boy had almost made the potion explode it had been time to make the Slytherin step aside for a bit.

Chin hitting the table harshly made Scorpius return back to the present. Book still being grasped in his left hand, but it had been ever so slightly been making Scorpius elbow slip without reach of the while rubbing his chin, the blonde could already feel the bruise coming on. But from the small window near Scorpius' desk he knew that he had probably been reading for about two to three hours. Scorpius had a feeling that it was about time to go to bed.

Setting down the book and his glasses, Scorpius stumbled up the circular stairs that he had seen Rose take when they first arrived at their new 'home'. Scorpius was way too tired to explore tonight. So when he came to the first room, knowing it was his from the many books and the blue decorating, he immediately flopped onto the bed, and dreamt of clouds.

* * *

After getting dressed in the boy's seventh year dormitories, Albus Potter awoke from a loud clanging noise coming from the common room. Being a curious Slytherin, Albus groggily got up to go and see what trouble had happened in the second day of the school year.

But when Albus stumbled down stairs, still wanting sleep to catch up with him, he was surprised to find a mousy looking boy clanging pots together like they were making the most amazing noise ever.

Albus wasn't the only one there, as the boy had awakened the entire Slytherin dungeons. "Can I have everyone's attention please?!" The brown haired boy tried to get everyone's attention, failing miserably as some of the older boys were starting to surround the boy in an aggressive fashion.

"Has anyone seen my underwear?" The boy yelled over the crowd that was starting to get restless. His declaration however, was met with silence as no one could believe that the young boy had awakened everyone at six-thirty.

"You are dead!" Albus saw his buddy, Mathias Flint, move closer, hands raised and leaped on the small boy. Luckily the boy moved out of the way just in time, running over to Lucy Yellsy, one of the prefects.

Lucy was wearing her bathrobe, hair still in curlers, looked up at Mathias, a look of defiance upon her face, daring the large boy to defy her. Even with the small boy looking up at her like she was an angel sent just for him, Albus still had a feeling that the kid was going to get it later.

"Mathias, if you would please move out of my way." Lucy said, glaring at him.

Mathias just gave her a small smirk, before telling her in a drawl that Albus' had been told that Draco Malfoy used to talk in, "I don't think I will. Just give me the boy, Lucy. I won't hurt him. Much." He said that in an afterthought.

"Oh, why don't you go pick on someone your own size? Huh, Flint? After all everyone here knows how much you love to pick on people smaller than you?" Lucy said back, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance, making some of the boys give her an ogled.

"Does it matter?" Mathias said, both of their eyes in a staring match. Mathias was the one who finally broke their staring contest. He sighed, "You know what? Fine. I'm going back to bed." He did, as many people already had. But for the few that had stayed to watch the confrontation, he barked out, "What are you looking' at! Git!" Shoving a second year past he marched up to the boy's dormitory.

Soon enough everyone left, to either go back to sleep or get dressed to go to the Great Hall for breakfast. Albus was one of those people, as he hopped into the shower. He washed his hair, not using conditioner as he always did, and soaped the rest of his body.

After he got out and toweled dried him, and got dressed in his regular uniform. He headed out to the Great Hall. It was unusually empty, but when he saw bushy red hair sitting down at the Gryffindor's table, Albus seated himself next to his favorite cousin.

"So~o how is being Head Girl?" Albus said, helping himself to Rose's biscuit.

Rose slapped his hand, but it was already shoved in his mouth. "It is amazing! Our dorm is absolutely HUGE!" She threw hands in the air, describing her new dormitory with many details.

Albus only interrupted her once, with porridge dropping down his face, "By the way, who is the Head Boy?"

"Oh, Malfoy," Rose said, trying to continue telling her story.

"What! Little meek Malfoy?" Albus said, laughing at the picture of tiny Malfoy standing up to anyone, let alone give anyone a detention. "You have to be kidding me!" Albus knew that Scorpius was smart. Oh, Albus knew too well, after working together in the disastrous attempt to work together last year. Albus had almost ruined the tiny blonde's grade, with almost making the potion explode.

"Yes. And why is it every time I tell someone that they laugh at my face? He's a good guy, really smart too. Makes mom seem almost as studious as dad," Rose told Albus, him laughing with her, them both knowing that Ron had been as studious as a mule.

"I know, Rosie." But from the look on her face, Albus thought she didn't really believe him. "I just thought… well maybe one of the more… Braver prefects might have been chosen. After all, Malfoy is kind of a pushover," Albus told his cousin. Well, it wasn't that Scorpius didn't try to be brave and strong. It just didn't fit the bookworm's personality well. Both of cousins knew that.

"He isn't a pushover! He's just… shy." Rose put the term lightly, they both knew that.

"The boy isn't just shy. He's practically afraid of his own shadow! Let alone other people!" Albus tried to get sense into his cousin's head.

"I know, I know." Rose said putting head into her hands, making her red hair flop onto the table. "Do you want to know what I think?" Rose asked, and then answered her own question, "I think something happened to him when he was younger. I don't know."

"What would have honestly made him so shy?" Albus said, burping rather loud, Rose made a disapproving noise in the back of her throat.

"Again, I don't know." Rose answered, picking at her food, all the sudden not feeling hungry.

"Speak of the devil." Albus said pointing his spoon at the blonde who had just came in. Getting a good look at the Ravenclaw, Albus wondered why so many people thought it necessary to constantly ridicule him in the way they did. Because from where Albus sat all he saw was a tiny bookworm that didn't have any trace of his bloodline save for the platinum blonde hair that he had heard all Malfoy's had.

Albus, well he always thought the boy to be a bit of a loner. He was always by himself with a book to his nose. Albus thought it was dumb of him to flaunt his intelligence to other people. Okay, he took that back. Scorpius didn't flaunt, show off, in any which manner, about his intelligence or otherwise. But he didn't, however, try to hide it. Okay, maybe he did. But he didn't try to get the teachers to stop when they flaunted his perfect student attitude. And, okay, Albus realized that he probably would back talk to a teacher if he had done nothing wrong, but that still didn't mean that Malfoy couldn't.

Couldn't what exactly? Talk back to a teacher? As Albus had stated before, the blonde simply didn't argue with people, about anything really.

The only time Albus had seen him even show emotion was when Albus almost sliced his fingers off. (That incident hadn't been all Albus' fault.) And other than the occasional gossip from his sister, he didn't hear anything about Scorpius Malfoy.

Albus did know quite a bit about his dad, though. From Albus' own dad, or Uncle Ron. Though Uncle Ron did tell a little bit more nasty things about how Draco Malfoy was an idiotic git.

"Well," Rose said, breaking Albus' thoughts, "We should get going, people are starting to show up." With that Rose got up, already knowing that Albus would follow her.

"Can we go see your knew pad?" Albus said, glancing one last time at the new Head Boy, who was eating by himself.

"Well, duh."

* * *

Scorpius had people acknowledge his existence this morning. Not in a bad way, either.

A kind faced sixth year Hufflepuff girl, whom he had never spoken to before, had told him her congratulations of making Head Boy. He had just stared at her a bit, wondering what just happened, before she had seen her friends and left him to his thoughts.

This had happened a few times after, several Gryffindors, quite a few Hufflepuffs, and the occasional Ravenclaw, but when a tall burly Slytherin, that made Scorpius a bit intimidated as the boy was at least eighteen inches taller than him, (Why was everyone taller than him?) had slapped him on the back, almost sending the tiny boy to the floor, and said in a gruff voice that he thanked him because he had placed a bet on him for twenty galleons against his friend for Scorpius becoming Head Boy.

That experience was something that Scorpius would never forget anytime soon.

But when the blonde had gotten to the Great Hall he had been hoping that he would be left alone to eat, and Scorpius had been glad that he had gotten his wish.

It wasn't that he didn't like people, oh no, his favorite pass time (besides reading, of course) was people watching. It wasn't that he was creepy either! He never usually watched the same person for more than for more than a few seconds. Scorpius did have his favorites, just like everyone else, the real characters, people that you remember. People that had something that Scorpius didn't.

He was okay with going unnoticed. Really it was okay with him. I mean, someone had to be that person; it might as well be him. He didn't want Flint and Hefley to pick on another kid whose family had fought on the wrong side of the war, even if it wasn't really Scorpius' fault either, but he was okay with taking the blame. Really.

"Are you really telling me that you had the password be alliances? Are you fucking with me right now?" Albus asked. "Because I thought for sure that you two bookworms would have picked something a little I don't know… smart."

"Well I think it's fitting." Rose said, sticking her nose up at Albus, who had taken to looking through the books that they had on the shelves.

"How is it fitting? And who the fuck names their kid, Dick E. Longton?" Albus said, picking up the maroon colored book, "What is 'E' for? Erection?" Albus chuckled at his own joke.

"I'll have you know that Mr. Longton is one of the most famous authors of all time. He wrote this paper on why Wolfsbane is used improperly, it was absolutely amazing! With all this research on the matter, my Merlin! Even I would have thought the journey to difficult." Rose finished dramatically, placing her palm on her chest in a dramatic gesture.

"Okay, Ms. Drama, I want to' your room, "Albus pouted childish like, pulling on his red haired cousin's sleeve.

The Slytherin headed up the stairs ignoring his cousin's calls and opened to the first bedroom, he knew immediately that it was not the Gryffindors' room. The first thing that clued him into this was that it was blue, the second was just well, and it was so blue.

"Albus! Get out of there!" Rose said, yanking his shirt to get him away from the boy's room. "I told you that mine is the second bedroom!" Shutting the Ravenclaw's room with a slam, Rose then turned back to Albus with a disapproving look on her face.

"Alright, alright, but did the room come with the piano?" Albus wined to his cousin.

At that Rose looked at him strangely, and asked, "What piano?"

"Well, Scorpius has one… Don't you?" Albus asked, scratching his messy black hair.

"No. He really has a piano?" Cracking the door open to see the black piano pressed up against the wall. "Why on earth would he have a piano?"

"How should I know? I ain't a Seer. Now we should go see Fred, I heard he's working this weekend," Albus suggested, after he saw that Rose's room was the same as the absent boy's.

"Can't, Rachel's failing Herbolodgy, have to go help. You know she's thick." Rose said to her cousin watching as Albus looked at everything in her room.

"Yeah, but she's a hot blonde." Albus said, thinking of the curvy beautiful blonde girl.

"Yes, but hair color doesn't get OWLs. You should know that," Rose said following her suddenly bored cousin out of her red room.

"You would know huh?" Albus said teasing his cousin for her flaming hair.

"Just so you know-"Rose's insult was interrupted by the large door opening to find a tiny Ravenclaw blonde boy clutching his book to his chest as though someone would knock them down. This was probably a case in earlier years. "Hello, Scorpius, how has your day been? Have you had Trawlany yet? Oh that lady bothers me. Did you know that my mother just stormed out of her classroom once? Said she was a big fraud. I tend to agree with her on that." Rose continued without letting Scorpius answer. That's just how most Weasley's were sadly. "Well anyway we were just discussing how the outer appearance doesn't affect your academic performance."

Albus scanned the blonde quickly and smirked before mockingly saying, "Look Rose! A rare example of a smart blonde! We should take a picture."

"You just proved my point! Scorpius here has probably been treated like he was dumb because of those stereotypes!" Rose said, glaring at her taller cousin.

"Believe me Rose; if Malfoy here is getting any prejudices, it's not for being blonde." Albus told his cousin, but wished he hadn't from the look on the blonde face. It wasn't sad or angry, but silver eyes just stared at Albus, completely blank. If anything that scared him more. And at that moment Albus almost apologized.

"Albus!" The red head said, hitting him hard in the stomach. "That was mean!"

"Truth hurts. Literally." Albus said bitterly letting Rose go to rub his bruising stomach and glaring at one of his red haired cousins.

"I have to get going. Rachael's expecting me." Rose said glancing one last time at the two boys before walking out of her shared common room.

With the red head gone Scorpius must have decided that he didn't need to be here so he started walking past the Slytherin boy. But with cat-like reflexes Albus grabbed the blonde wrist and roughly turned the boy to him, and with those silver eyes staring at his own green ones, Albus did something very uncharacteristic and awkwardly said, "Hey look… I know that that was uncalled for and I'm sorry. You probably don't need me to bring things up that are better left unsaid, right? And I'm going to regret this, I know I am but … I'm sorry."

Albus waited for a reaction, yelling or punching, maybe, but when Scorpius just said expressionlessly, "It's alright." And Albus let his wrist go so that the blonde could continue walking past him.

* * *

Sprinting up the stairs Scorpius was very happy that he had the first room so he could get out of the Slytherin's eye sight as soon as possible. Leaning against the closed door Scorpius held his pale hand to his incredibly beating heart as though just his touch would slow it down. Taking a few deep breaths, and counted backwards from ten, like his mother had told him to if a panic attack was ever going to happen.

Why did that just happen in the first place? Why on earth did Scorpius get him into that situation in the first place? Well to be honest when one of the strongest Quidditch players was holding you by the wrist you stay. Especially when it was Albus Potter and one wrong move could make an army of Weasley's attack you.

But it was all a bit strange in Scorpius' opinion. Albus Potter had apologized for something that Scorpius had thought was true in the first place. Now thinking back on it no one had ever really bothered him for being, well, blonde.

Not that he didn't appreciate the thought! Of course Scorpius really had though it very sweet. Truly he did. But it was just it was a bit unusual for a popular Slytherin boy, let alone a Potter, to apologize to a lowly book smart Ravenclaw. Especially if that Ravenclaw happened to be a Malfoy.

Sighing once more Scorpius faintly heard the common room door shut and close, leaving Scorpius' completely alone in the rather large head room.

Well, if he was alone he might as well practice. So the blonde sat down at his old piano, ever grateful for the peace and serenity that was felt when his pale fingers hit those ivory and ebony keys.

Scorpius hadn't ever been able to freely play at Hogwarts. He had usually snuck into the Room of Requirement in the middle of the night. That was inconvenient and rather bothersome as being up that late took a toll in his health and studies so he didn't play at Hogwarts much, if at all. But when he learned that the Head boy got his own room Scorpius immediately asked his father to allow him to take the black piano to school with him. Draco didn't even raise an eyebrow and agreed.

Scorpius was five the first time his mother showed him how to play the large instrument. Astoria had placed the tot in-between her legs and had showed her only son which peddles to push. Scorpius had loved it and had taken to it immediately. Of course Draco had moped and whined about having a muggle instrument in his house but after a good scolding from Astoria had him shut up and even encouraged his son to keep playing.

Astoria always had a knack for getting Draco to behave.

A loud bang from downstairs made Scorpius take his hands away from the key s as though they burned him. As Scorpius didn't really play in front of people soon after he started Hogwarts, and he didn't plan on breaking the streak anytime soon. Especially not in front of someone he had barely, well not quite, met. Even if Rose and Scorpius were kind of friends now, and maybe in the distant future Scorpius would allow the Weasley to hear him play.

Deciding that he should probably see if Albus really had gone or not, Scorpius slowly creped out of his blue room into the hallway and went down to the shared common room, only to find it, thankfully, completely deserted. "What are you doing?" A voice said, scaring the short blonde into jumping a foot in the ground, arms raised and ready for attack, head jerking, trying to find the intruder, but only finding that he was just as alone as he had been when Albus had left.

But that didn't stop from Scorpius attentively asking, "Is anyone there?"

"I'm over here, idiot." And then finally Scorpius' grey eyes finally found what he was looking for, which was in fact, just a portrait of a distantly familiar figure. "You must be Draco's boy." The man in the magic picture said, greasy hair and hooked nose, he reminded Scorpius of a soaked, mean, bat.

Still half in shock Scorpius could only manage a half nod; eyes wide open not daring himself to blink. He didn't know why he was so bloody terrified of this man, this illustration, could not harm him. So there was nothing to be afraid of. Right?

"Is he doing well? I haven't checked up on him in a while." The asked him, looking at him with the coldness in his eyes finally gone, somewhat. That's when Scorpius finally realized who the man was.

"You're Severus Snape!" Scorpius shouted, redness flooding to his cheeks at the black man's obvious disapproval of his sudden outcry. How could he not have recognized him? After all the Malfoy's had their own portrait of Severus in the manor. Scorpius had grown up hearing stories of this man!

"I'm glad you finally noticed." Severus sarcastically said, looking down upon Scorpius that made him feel as insignificant as possible.

"I-I'm sorry, sir. I di-did not recognize you." Scorpius said looking at the swirls of the rugs under his feet.

"You're not much like you father, are you?" Severus asked, not judgmentally but almost… approving?

"N-no, sir."

"Not much like, your mother either, I suppose." A flash of her kind eyes and warm smile just made Scorpius smile a bit, and shake his head. "How is Astoria, anyhow?" Severus questioned again, completely unaware about the unfortunate fate that had been given to Scorpius' mother. But he braced himself and grimly answered,

"She's been dead for six years."

"Oh."

The silence that overwhelmed the dead and alive, was suffocating, and gave Scorpius the urge to run and hide.

"When did it happen?"

"O-October 29th, 2017."

And again the silence overtook them. This time however, Scorpius wasn't quite sure if it was because the man just didn't know what to say to him, or if it was the other way around.

"I'm sorry to hear that." The painted man finally said. Black eyes looked at Scorpius with not an ounce of pity in them. Something Scorpius appreciated very much. "If you don't mind me asking, how did she die?"

This made something in the pit of Scorpius' stomach clench and a lump from in the back of his throat. He didn't want to tell this man. Scorpius didn't want to offend this man, but how his mother died was personal and not to be discussed in front of any personal. Ever. But when the dead professor kept staring at him waiting for an answer Scorpius knew that he couldn't just tell this man to shove off. Even if he felt that the situation called for a good smart mouthing. "I-I'd rather n-not talk about it actually, sir."

Again silence enveloped them.

Finally after a few minutes Severus asked, "How is Draco doing?"

"He's doing well. J-just got a raise, too. He's happy, I guess."

"What is his job exactly?"

"H-He's an arguer. He's good at what he does, I suppose." Scorpius told the painted man. "A lot of people didn't think much of him after the war. B-but he decided th-that after he got married to my mum he would pursue w-what he wanted. So… yeah."

"I always knew that he would be successful. Didn't think he would be in a Ministry position, however." Severus said, still studying him. "But then again I didn't think that he would ever be happily married and have a son."

At that Scorpius just laughed.

* * *

"Merlin, I can't wait to get out of this place." Nickolas Nott said, basking in the last of the summer sun in the middle of the green grass.

"You're telling us?" Blake Zabini said, tongue gliding over white teeth, "I've been back for a day and I'm already bored."

The four Slytherin boys had claimed this spot as their own back in first year when they originally decided to become friends. It was much harder for Albus to originally, as the three other boys had all become friends much longer before that. After all the three had all been purebloods so they had always gone to the same parties, now however, it was always, Albus, Nickolas, Blake, and Mathias Flint. The four friends had been friends since poor Albus had gotten into Slytherin. Had you told him seven years ago that he would be Slytherin; Albus probably would have burst into tears. But now, looking back on it, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.

"Yeah, well, you and me both." Albus said stretching his tan arms out like a black cat.

"What are you going to do after this? My parents are going to buy me my first flat. Get to choose whatever one I want." Mathias bragged.

"Really, mine already has mine picked out. It's absolutely hideous. Merlin's beard, life is so unfair." Blake Zabini whined falling onto his back. "Parents are so unfair."

"Wait, what?!" Albus said, green eyes shocked and very surprised. "Your parents just gave you a house?!"

This seemed to surprise the three boys quite a bit as they just stared at Albus, eyebrows raised. Nickolas finally explained, "Well, yeah. It's kind of like a coming of age ceremony. After you graduate Hogwarts you parents will buy you whatever living space. Don't your parents do that?"

Albus just had his mouth hung open and shook his head no.

"I guess only purebloods really practice it." Blake added.

"Why?" Albus finally croaked out, green eyes still wide and a bit glazed over.

"I don't know. It's not like we need it. After we get our inheritance we should be set for life. I think parents are always a bit worried about us." Nick finished.

"What? Why?"

"Well, after we turn seventeen, an adult, we get our inheritance. Then we really don't have any financial problems."

"By that you mean?"

At that Mathias finally spoke on the manner, "Means, we got about a million galleons. Who knows? Maybe we have two!" At that Albus made a choking sound on the back of his throat and flopped onto his back. Nickolas gave a startled cry, but then Albus raised a hand and said,

"I have been handing out with not one, not two, but three millionaires for six years?"

* * *

Being the first one to always sit down came with the good and the bad. The good will always is that the second person will always look at you first. The bad of course is after that no one will notice you. This was something that Scorpius accepted, kind of lived by it. So it wasn't all that unusual for Rose Weasley to walk in not a few minutes after he did. Rose would usually just find her seat and take it. Maybe talk to her friends when they decided to join her. But today Rose marched right next to Scorpius and sat next to him.

As soon as she got conformable Rose started to ramble, half to herself and half to Scorpius. (Scorpius had a theory that most girls just liked to hear themselves talk.) She started talking about how her friend Rachel was dealing with difficult boys, and just why are we so difficult in the first place?

"If you are going to cheat, why not, I don't know; break up with the person who you were currently seeing? Seriously if you just break up with the girl before you sleep with someone else it would save everyone the hassle of dealing with the aftermath that is sure to come with that one stupid mistake." Rose continued to ramble. Making dramatic hand gestures every time she got really into what she was talking about.

"And if you do break up with the girl, at least have the backbone to do it face to face, not have your friend's friends' brother ex-girlfriends cousin do it. This actually has happened to several of my friends, all of whom already knew that the breakup was going to happen- "The red headed girl continued to talk. And talk. And talk. Soon enough Scorpius had drowned out most of what the girl was saying to him. He didn't mean to! Really! But when a person starts talking about something that you have no interest in whatsoever it can be slightly more difficult to concentrate on what exactly they were saying in the first place.

Finally more and more people started to pile in the Advanced Transfiguration class. Most of them were Ravenclaws, but there were a few Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. There was only five Slytherins, though, and only one of them was a girl that Scorpius barley recognized.

"Oh, that slut." This made Scorpius raise his eyebrows, and subtly raise his head to see what the Weasley seemed to be looking at the Slytherin girl as though she was the bile of her very existence. For all Scorpius knew she could be. "You see that girl, that's Pansy Parkinson's girl, Penny Parkinson. That girl is such a cow."

"I don't think so." Scorpius replied, eyeing the tall dark haired girl. He remembered her. Ms. Parkinson used to come over and chat with his father quite a bit, Penny had always tagged along and played with Scorpius when they were little. But that was a long time ago. The last time Scorpius had talked to Penny was about a month before their first year at Hogwarts.

"What? What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"S-She used to be… uh… sweet." Scorpius said, slowly regretting that he had said anything at all.

"Parkinson? Sweet? Now you listen to me Scorpius, Penny Parkinson is bad news. Have you heard what kind of stuff that she and her friends get up to? Albus told me he saw her downing some Angel Flight behind the Quidditch pitch." Rose explained. "How she got into Advanced Transfiguration is beyond me."

With that last thought the Transfiguration teacher, Professor Felton, called the attention to himself.

Long after the lessons had started Scorpius was still thinking about what Rose had said.

* * *

Albus was, for lack of a better term, sulking.

He had been so deep in thought he had skipped his first three classes. It wasn't a very good idea; Albus knew that, with the NEWTS coming steadily nearer. It was just… weird. All three of his closest friends already had their futures planned out. And even if they messed up they didn't have to worry about anything. He still didn't know what he was doing after he left Hogwarts. Didn't know where he would live. Didn't know his future career. Didn't know anything. Merlin, his life was a mess.

What Albus did know was that he would not live with his parents. He would live in his brother's lousy flat if he had to, but seventeen long years being crammed in that house has made him appreciate his room at Hogwarts.

"Albus, what are you doing?" Green eyes flicked up to meet the three Slytherin boys that were in a semicircle around him.

"Nothing'." Albus said, flopping onto his back, not meeting his friend's eyes.

"Nothing, huh?" Blake replied flopping down next to him. "You know if you don't do anything about the grades you are currently getting, you might not even be allowed to move back in to your parents."

"That's not funny." Albus pouted, flinging his right arm over his eyes.

"Actually the way your acting it kind of is." Nick said, squatting over the pathetic looking boy. "Why are you so upset anyway? It's not that big of a deal."

"Are you kidding me?" Albus snarled, body shooting up to glare at the auburn haired boy. "How is it not a big deal? I've known you guys for what, five years? And I've never known. Never even suspected!"

Finally Mathias spoke up, "Don't be such a fucking prat, Albus. It's like one us being starstruck over your dad!"

"You were starstruck over my dad." Albus pointed out.

"Yeah, well… It's different, Albus. Don't think that you wouldn't have treated us differently." Blake says slowly, "And don't think that you wouldn't. Because you would. Just like I would have if I hadn't known who your dad was."

"Those are two very different things!" Albus shouted.

"No they're not!" Nick shouted back.

"As if!" Albus shouted flinging himself to go sulk next to another large tree. But, as expected, all three of them followed after. Sitting himself on his bum with his legs wrapped around the trunk Albus stared directly at the bark in front of him.

They sat in silence until Mathias deep baritone voice called out, "If it makes you feel any better we have an idea for you housing problem."

Stubbornly Albus didn't look up from his tree, "Yeah and that would be?"

"Well, we'll give you the money of course," Albus turns to protest, but Mathias raises a hand to silence him, "All you have do is a very a simple task."

"It's a very simple task." Nick repeats.

"Yeah, it really is," Blake always there to reassure.

"And what is it?" Albus questions, after all, Slytherins could come up with some rather nasty dares. The suppose reassuring smile Mathias gave him was more like a snake like grin before saying in the sweetest voice possible,

"Its all very easy, all you have to do is get Scorpius Malfoy to fall in love with you."


End file.
